Do Colours Look Like Dispositions? Reply to Langsam and Others

Dispositional theories of colour have been attacked by McGinn and others on the ground that 'Colours do not look like dispositions'. Langsam has argued that on the contrary they do, in 'Why Colours Do Look Like Dispositions', The Philosophical Quarterly , 50 (2000), pp. 68–75. I make three claims. First, neither side has made its case. Secondly, it is true, at least on one interpretation, that colours do not look like dispositions. Thirdly, this does not show that dispositionalism about colours is false.     

Generality of a strength model for three conditions of repeated recall

A Markovian model of repeated recall is presented that is based on four memory processes: (a) a presentation increment that strengthens the memory trace of a word when the word is shown to a subject, (b) a recall increment that strengthens the trace when the subject successfully recalls the word, (c) a cueing decrement that weakens the trace as contextual cues for retrieving a word change over successive trials of attempted recall, and (d) a sampling rule that translates the strength of a memory trace into a probability of recall. Mathematically, the model predicts the relative frequencies of the recall patterns that are defined by sequences of recalls and forgets for individual words over trials. According to the model, the recallability of a word depends on its state, which is a function of (a) whether the word has been recalled for the first time, and if so, then (b) how many consecutive forgets of the word immediately precede the current trial, (c) how many successful recalls of the word have accumulated, and (d) how many previous trials of attempted recall have elapsed. Paradigms that were well described by the model were (a) no reminding, in which words were presented once and then recalled repeatedly without additional presentations; (b) restricted reminding, in which words were presented before each trial of attempted recall up to their first successful recall but not thereafter; and (c) complete reminding, in which all words were presented befor each attempted recall, whether previously recalled or not. Differences in recall among these conditions were explained in terms of differences in values of the model's parameters.     

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING BY PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND AUSTRALIA1

Instrumental learning of preschool children in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia (AUST) was compared using two tasks (imitative and nonimitative) and two rewards (social and nonsocial). There were no differences between the two groups in the rate of acquisition measure of trials to criterion. PNG children made more late responses during acquisition and, for nil responses, there were group x task and group x reward x task effects. In the extinction phase, there were two main effects for trials to criterion: PNG children were more resistant to extinction than AUST children, and there was greater persistence in responding after social reward regardless of nationality. Reward x group, reward x task, and reward x group x task interactions also were observed in the extinction trials to criterion. In addition, there were three main task effects during extinction for other responses: on the imitative task, more wrong responses were made, and on the nonimitative task, more extra responses and more paired responses were made. A subsidiary analysis compared the two culturally different but educationally similar groups comprising the PNG sample: no major differences were isolated in acquisition or extinction.     

Semi-automated desensitization : a controlled clinical trial

A clinical trial of semi-automated desensitization on phobic patients. Twelve received treatment with a therapist present and 12 received treatment from pre-recorded tapes. Therapy lasted a maximum of 16 weekly sessions. Assessment of progress was by means of self-ratings of phobic behaviour and more global fear ratings, made by the referring psychiatrist. Both treatments produced beneficial results. Both ratings agreed in finding no significant differences between the two methods of administration, thus confirming results from existing non-clinical trials of automated desensitization. Regardless of treatment group, agoraphobics and social phobics tended to improve less markedly, and less rapidly than simple phobics. Some implications of automated therapy for clinical practice are discussed.     

Positive and negative social ties among older adults: Measurement models and the prediction of psychological distress and well-being

The factor structure of positive and negative social ties was studied among 246 older adults who were either recently physically disabled, recently conjugally bereaved, or matched controls. Covariance structure analyses were carried out on a network measure to determine whether positive and negative social ties represent independent domains of social experience, and to assess the degree to which their structure is invariant across groups undergoing major loss transitions. Positive and negative social ties were found to be independent and there was substantial similarity in their factor structure across the three groups. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, whereas positive social ties were related to psychological well-being, negative social ties were predictive of both psychological well-being and distress. These results demonstrate the importance of assessing both positive and negative ties in explaining the psychological adjustment of older adults.